I was looking for a way to convert a bunch of albums I had in APE format to MP3 and VLC didn't seem to be getting the job done. I then came across this program
http://xrecode.com/
It's simple, easy to use, and supports multiple cores. I was able to convert 8 files simultaneously. It also converts files to iphone rintone format, but I haven't tested that yet.
Anyway, thought I'd share the program in case anyone ever needs to convert something you should give this a try.
"You're not going crazy. You're going sane in a crazy world!" ~Tick